JoeBuck

I suppose we need to frame last night within the 5 year project: Year 1 - impose your style and team culture Year 2 - back in the CL with increasingly his own team/ squad Year 3 - back in the CL (and through to the knock-outs) and perhaps a Cup, with his own team/ squad Year 4 - championship contender, knock-outs of the CL and a Cup Year 5 - champions! So last season was perhaps two years ahead of schedule and within the context of losing losing your best player,I suppose this season is going to be about one step back, for two steps forward. The only consolation is that Chelsea/ City will also drop points at home to lesser teams who park the bus (see Stoke)

my concern is that his signings has generally been shite so far...the front 4 today were poor, with Balotelli looking the opposite of poetry in motion - a weird signing and again, a sign of Brendan's ego getting the better of him. He's won fuck all yet in his managerial career and his inability to affect the game today was in stark comparison to Mourinho at Chelsea today. Still think he's the best thing to happen to us in years, but tonight is a serious wake up call.

well that was disappointing and still the jury must be out on Rodgers. Firstly, was he just lucky that he had Suarez who could turn most games. Secondly, what arrogance - 4 debutants and rest your best payer against a side who has outplayed us twice at home in the past two seasons. and what about Lovren - another £20m wasted on a central defender who can't defend corners? every season we came close - 1997, 2002, 2009, and most painfully last season, the following season has failed to match and the players have failed to live up to expectations. The shirt looked heavy for most tonight, and not just the hapless Lambert.

spot on post. Having been a big fan of him, I'm also in two minds now about Rodgers as he seemed to have a plan and a style of play, but seems to have given this up for pragmatism which is never good (look at Wenger for someone who has the courage of his convictions). Today, Newcastle wanted it more than us which is a poor indictment on any manager (can't motivate your team to go top?)..we were off the pace, even in the 2nd half, and only Hendo seemed to try and lift our tempo (a couple of times in the 2nd half Suarez upped his game from the abject losing possession every time he touched the ball). Not all his fault I suppose given the tight purse strings, but all most of our signings under Rodgers have been rejects from CL clubs such as Chelsea, Inter, Barca, PSG, City, Valencia etc and maybe these players didn't get into these teams because they weren't what might be considered as "winners"...certainly looked like it today..

But that's the best thing about this season surely -we're yet to play well yet are doing what we used to do and United have been doing for 20 years - play badly and win. Once we have a settled formation, all our key players are fit and firing, the new players settled in etc, then I expect the performances to improve significantly, probably to the same difference as the 1st and 2nd half of last season. In the meantime, keep on doing enough to win and enjoy the winning mentality Kolo is giving the team.

Good assessment this. Thought Morgan Schneiderlin bossed the game and showed Gerrard and Lucas what a top class midfielder looked like - in fairness to Stevie, he was trying too hard towards the end but our real captain today (and best player) was Toure, just like Carra's been our real skipper for the best 10 years. We are mentally weak and lack bottle - see Alberto's fluffed shot or Sterling's pathetic lack of control when he had a real chance. That's not an age thing, but just not having the top player mentality to make a difference when they can. Confident that Rodgers will sort it out but as always, he's making a silk's purse out of a sow's ear.

Code - your one for stats but this is the most important stat of the season. 2nd half of last season we got 18 points (36 points is relegation form); 1st half of this season we got 25 points (50 points is mid table form); 2nd half of this season we've got 36 points (72 points is CL form). Throw in the additional points we should have got from most of our draws (eg City 2 x, Reading, West ham, Stoke, Sunderland etc) and we should be looking at 80 points next season. Lots of other nice stats as well to confirm the entertaining football we've played this season eg most shots at goal. Full credit to Rodgers.